Science outreach: an important endeavor for active scientists
Science outreach: an important endeavor for active scientists
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科学推广：活跃科学家的一项重要努力
DOI：
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发表时间：
2009
影响因子：
4.3
通讯作者：
S. Olesik
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
S. Olesik
高技术产业是当前世界经济增长的重要引擎。20多年来，高科技生产的年增长率是其他任何制造业领域的两倍多。自2003年以来，美国高科技产业为国内生产创造的高科技附加值超过了其他任何国家或欧盟（eu）。虽然这对世界经济产生了积极影响，但由于可能缺乏足够的理工科大学毕业生，这种能力可能无法保持下去。目前，在每100名24岁的年轻人中，美国在科学和工程领域获得高等教育学位的人数在18个工业化国家中排名第16位。美国学生在科学方面的熟练程度进一步威胁到美国科学技术的经济增长。关于美国科学能力的最新数据表明，在整个国际比较时期（从1996年到2007年），美国的科学能力没有任何提高。这些数据的另一个令人信服的组成部分是，精通科学的学生的百分比没有达到高于30-32%的值。图1显示了工业化国家学生在科学熟练程度上的比较，这些国家的学生在K-12系统中表现低于、等于或高于美国。随着美国学生进入K-12教育体系，他们相对于国际同龄人的竞争力下降。美国竞争倡议的建立是为了通过许多资助倡议来改善美国的科学和工程教育。目前仍在讨论为这些倡议提供资金的问题。2005年，即将退休的美国科学促进会（American Association for the Advancement of Science）首席教育官C.F.卢瑟福（C.F. Rutherford）警告说，二战后的美国在科学教育方面几乎没有取得什么进展。Rutherford认为，这种进展的缺乏不是由于在应用人力资本或财政资本方面缺乏科学教育改革的努力。他认为，造成这些令人失望的数据的原因是，美国教育体系复杂，国家层面的努力不一定能转化为地方层面的变化，因为教育主要由地方和州两级控制。因此，影响变革的基层努力与这一进程的国家框架相结合可能会更有成效。美国有近400万拥有高等学位的科学家，他们可能能够为这种基层工作做出贡献。
High-technology industries are currently key drivers of world economic growth. For more than 20 years, production in high technology has grown at over twice the annual rate of any other manufacturing area [1]. Since 2003, the US hightechnology industry has generated more high-technology value added to domestic production than any other country or the European Union [2]. While this has positively impacted the world economy, this capability may not be maintained owing to possible lack of availability of enough science and engineering college graduates. The USA currently ranks 16th (out of 18) among the industrialized nations for the number of higher-education degrees in science and engineering produced per 100 24-year-olds [2]. The proficiency of US students in science further threatens the economic growth of science and technology in the USA. The most recent data on science proficiency in the USA show that no improvement in science proficiency in the USA occurred across this entire period of international comparisons (from 1996 to 2007) [3]. Another compelling component of those data is that the percentage of students proficient in science does not reach values higher than 30–32%. Figure 1 shows a comparison of the number of industrialized countries with students performing below, equal to, or above the USA in science proficiency as a function of progress through the K-12 system [1]. US students become less competitive relative to their international peers as they move through the K-12 education system. The American Competitive Initiative was established to improve science and engineering education in the USA through numerous funding initiatives. The funding of these initiatives continues to be under discussion. In 2005 C.F. Rutherford, retiring Chief Education Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, cautioned that little progress in science education has been made in post-World War II America. Rutherford suggests that this lack of progress is not due to a lack of effort in science education reform in terms of either applied human or financial capital. He argues that the causes of these disappointing data are that the US education system is complex and efforts made at the national level do not necessarily translate into changes at the local level because education is primarily controlled at the local and state levels [4]. Therefore, grassroots efforts to affect change combined with a national framework for that process would likely be more productive. The USA has nearly four million scientists with advanced degrees who might be able to contribute to such grassroots efforts.